The present invention relates to a front grille for attachment to the front part of a vehicle.
This type of front grille has heretofore been disposed so as to be positioned between a pair of headlights in the front part of a vehicle, and attached to the vehicle body or a front spoiler via clips.
Additionally, in recent years, there has been a strong demand for enhancement of protection properties with respect to pedestrians, and various devices have been made so that a part of the shock in a collision is absorbed by the front grille.
As one of the devices, there has been proposed a technique in which a frame portion is disposed on a module carrier attached to the front part of the vehicle, a grille main body formed of a soft synthetic resin, a rubber material or the like and having no corners is fitted in the frame portion and fixed by bonding or the like (e.g., see Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 7-35255, hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”).
Moreover, there has also been proposed a technique in which the front grille is molded using high-shock plastic and is attached to the vehicle body so that the grille main body bends, following movement of the front bumper with respect to the vehicle body (e.g., see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-52734, hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 2”).
However, these front grilles have the following problems.
First, in the front grille described in Patent Document 1, the grille main body is molded using the soft synthetic resin or the rubber material. This causes a problem in that the thickness of the grille main body needs to be increased in order to secure rigidity capable of bearing wind pressure against the grille main body when the vehicle is driven, and the main body becomes heavy. There is also a possibility that the grille main body is not easily positioned with respect to a module carrier and operability becomes poor.
On the other hand, in the front grille described in Patent Document 2, for example, when a shock load is exerted on the grille main body or the front bumper, the grille main body is elastically deformed. Therefore, a restoring force (repulsive force) is generated in the grille main body. There is a possibility that the restoring force forms a force in such a direction as to press a member which contacts the grille main body or the front bumper and the shock load is not easily absorbed.
Moreover, there is also a problem in that broken pieces in a collision scatter/fly and road surface conditions are deteriorated.